One In Five Adult Americans Does Not Use The Internet

4/16/2012 1:45 PM ET

The Pew Internet Project has shared findings that one in five adult Americans do not use the Internet. In a report released on Monday, the research group revealed that the elderly, foreign speakers, those with low levels of education and those in low earning households were the least likely to use the Internet.

"Having broadband strongly affects how one uses the Internet, especially as multimedia elements such as video become more and more popular. Even back in 2002, we found that dial-up users take part in an average of three online activities per day, while broadband users take part in seven," the project noted in their report.

The new statistics do, however, show a significant increase in web use from 2001, when only about half of all adults were online. By 2011 researchers found the 62 percent of respondents make use of high-speed Internet at their home.

"Those who do not use the Internet often do not feel any need to try it, some are wary of the technology and others are unhappy about what they hear about the online world," the report concluded.